Friday, May 08, 2009

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental on-call strumpet Gal Friday Fah Lo Suee and I will be joining Bristol Palin on her whistlestop Abstinence Now (Except For Levi) media tour. We'll be stopping in to see pretty much every mid-market drive-time AM shock jock in the South, so we should be really getting the message across.

In any case, posting by moi will necessarily be sporadic for a few days.

But in my absence, here's a fun project for you all to contemplate:

Best Post-Elvis Album Cover(s)!!!

Self-explanatory, I think, so no arbitrary rules, except go easy on the Blue Notes, okay? Also, I do think it's interesting that only one of my picks was done after the end of the LP era, and that one happens to be an homage. Just saying.

Anyway, here's my totally top of my head Top Seven.

7. The Yardbirds -- For Your Love

Greatest band logo ever, and every one of those band photos is iconic. As is Jeff Beck's striped shirt.

6. Sleater-Kinney -- Dig Me Out

Not a fan, but the fact that this is based on the brilliant design of an old Kinks album cover never issued in the States back in the day just knocks me out.

5. Talking Heads -- Remain in Light

A very cool graphic, I think you'll admit, and the fact it's the work of my then girlfriend has absolutely nothing to do with why it's on my list.

Incidentally, she preferred the back cover design, originally intended for the front...

...but nixed by Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz because they thought it "glorified war." Who knew those two were DFHs?

4. The Beatles -- Beatles For Sale

Photo by the great Robert Freeman, and pretty much my single favorite shot of any rock band's Morning After ever. Look at those faces -- so young, and yet they've already seen so much...

3. Led Zeppelin -- Presence

Design by the famous graphic arts collective Hipgnosis, and just a wonderful piece of pop surrealism. Who said Zep didn't have a sense of humor?

2. The Rolling Stones -- The Rolling Stones

Photo by the great David Bailey, who had a front row seat at the 60s party, and an absolutely perfect pop portrait -- 45 years later the look is still utterly outside of time, and it will be equally evocative and otherworldly 45 years hence. Incidentally, in England, that WAS the cover -- no title, no record company logo, no lettering of any kind, just that incredible picture of the band staring destiny in the face. And yes, it was a conceptual masterstroke on the part of manager Andrew Loog Oldham that was without precendent in 1964.

And the number one coolest album cover, and it's not even a gatefold so you couldn't clean your dope on it, nonetheless obviously is ----

1. The Mothers of Invention -- Weasels Ripped My Flesh

Painting by artist Neon Park, based on a lurid 50s men's magazine cover that Zappa had filed for future use years earlier. Again, not a fan of the band, but the first time I saw that cover in 1970 I laughed my fricking ass off.

Awrighty, then -- what would your choices be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: best film's with characters from real life -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could take a moment to go over there and say something pithy, that would keep me in good with management. Thanks!]

One definite choice is The Vapors' Magnets. Done by Martin Handford, who would later go on to do the Where's Waldo? series, this pic answers that question: clearly, Waldo has been assassinated.

Other standouts of the period include The Undertone's Positive Touch, which a pic can never do justice to: It's a white-on-white 3D thing. But cool.

I adored---because I am a geek--XTC's Go 2 cover. Had never seen anything like it. (And if we like tribute covers, then you could do a lot worse than the Dukes of the Stratosphear's dead-on-balls accurate homage to Disraeli Gears: the cover of 25 O'Clock.)

And of course my beloved Shoes, Present Tense. I gather they're not fond of it, but it had a great effect on me in the day, what with the clear debate going on just under the surface of all 4: whether to fuck or punch the person on the other side of the camera.

Can we mention worsts, too? Because the slew of 80's albums with covers drawn by porn cartoonists (I'm looking at YOU, Candy-O and Rio) was a dismaying thing. And while it didn't bug me at the time, the wave of mid90's albums with pics of the artists as ironic 70s kids have not aged well (I'm thinking 100% Fun and stuff like that.)

(And steve, don't be too dismayed by The Woods--there's lots of Sleater Kinney out there that's decent: try "You're No Rock and Roll Fun," for example.

Liked the Moody Blues covers - The Present and Every Good Boy Deserves Favors

Howlin' Wolf - The London Sessions appealled to me for some reason.

Loved the Andy Warhol banana on the Velvet Underground.

Seems to me Peter Max did a cover for someone that I liked but I can't remember who it was.

And the Herb Alpert - Whipped Cream and Other Delights fascinated me as a youngster. I'm sure it was an innocent attraction to the mountain of whipped cream since I was too young and naive to get any sexual reference from it.

And if we're adding ones we hated, King Crimson - The Court of the Crimson King always gave me the creeps.

I think the obelisk in Presence was designed to be inscrutable, but it is memorable and intriguing. But if we're talking about Zeppelin covers, I'd have to go with Physical Graffiti. The building is still there on East 8th Street, which always stops me in my tracks. Apparently, the record's release was held up by the complications of putting the package together, and when asked what was delaying the LP, Percy Plant would respond, "We're working on our windows."

Also worth noting is the original cover for Spinal Tap's "Smell the Glove," which we never get to see, but which is succinctly described by Polymer Records PR flak Bobbi Flekman....Hey, what's wrong with being sexy?

Music From Big Pink - Dylan's painting is primitive as all get out, but it also perfectly captures the music as well as the personalities of the musicians. Richard needing help to play the piano upside-down still breaks my heart.

Neon Park did a lot of great covers for Little Feat, favorite being the cake-on-a-swing-with-blue-boy-and-viking for "Sailing Shoes."

I've always been very fond of the cover of the album "In The Heart of the Heart Country" by Fire Town. This is a lousy reproduction; on the original album sleeve the colors are slightly different, which makes a big difference. The simplicity and elegance just pops.

For another striking cover taken from a magazine cover, there's always Weird Tales by Golden Smog.

I always thought the cover of Born To Run was pretty iconic, and I love this parody.

1) No I had no idea of the original covers. My goodness thank you so much for pointing that out to me.

2) Making fun of someone's last name? Really? Is 6th grade already out for the summer?

3) Man you sure are tolerant of someone who disagreed with you on 1 album. Since I don't want to stoop to your level I'm done responding to you after this. If you feel the need to argue with a brick wall be my guest

"Who's Next" captures the post-Woodstock letdown pretty well. But I have a soft spot for "Who Are You": sadly ironic that Keith Moon, who died shortly after the disc's release, is squatting on a chair which is stenciled "NOT TO BE TAKEN AWAY."

And I loved the spaceship on ELO's "Out of the Blue" - great '70s excess.

I'm with Gummo re Rubber Soul. The clever album title, the 4 guys looking down, unsmiling ... “WTF? This is the Beatles?” In Chronicles, Dylan says something to the effect of, he always admired musicians who looked and carried themselves in a way that made you feel like they knew something you didn’t. And that’s what the Rubber Soul Beatles made me feel like. Plus, my parents absolutely hated this record on sight and unheard, another plus.

The art on this Procol Harum cover was a style that was really popular among all the artists in my little social circle.

And I ran across this site with the weirdest album covers. Hours of fun here if you like this stuff. Some good art. Some classic albums like Mr. Magoo sings and KFC's Colonel Saunders Christmas Album. Some hysterical obscure albums. I loved this Moth in a Gray Flannel Suit, an album by the very *famous* Bob Peck.

I second the Cheap Thrills cover. R. Crumb's drawings conveyed a wildness & sexuality that was thrilling & scary at the same time. It was another one of those "I've never seen anything like THIS before!"

Ditto the Doors' Strange Days cover. One of the best marriages of illustration to the music within during the rock era.

Friend of mine's late dad did a lot of the art direction on 60s Elektra albums - Doors, Incredible String Band like that... (Almost fell out of my chair while reading "Please Kill Me," and realising that he was the same guy who got The Stooges kicked off the label...)- bill buckner